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Watch Felipe Massa put the Jaguar C-X75 through its paces

Automakers who run their own racing teams enjoy the benefit of having top-flight professional racing drivers on call to help out with development work. Jaguar, unfortunately, has no such racing team, having sold its F1 operation to Red Bull back in 2004. So when it came time to put the C-X75 through its paces in this latest video, it turned to Felipe Massa. Why Massa, you ask? For one thing, having driven for so long for Ferrari, the Brazilian driver is used to applying his F1 skills in testing a supercar designed for the road. But since switching to Williams, he hasn't been called upon in that capacity. For another, it was Williams Advanced Engineering as much as Jaguar itself that spearheaded development of the C-X75. So Massa was the natural choice. The C-X75, for those who don't recall, represented Jaguar's plan to build a hybrid hypercar of its own. Having debuted way back in 2010 at the Paris Motor Show, the concept followed hot on the heels of the Porsche 918 concept unveiled earlier that year in Geneva – a predated by far the emergence of the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari. The original design called for a revolutionary powertrain combining a pair of micro-turbines and four individual electric motors in the wheels. When that proved unfeasible, Jaguar switched to a more conventional setup with a turbocharged hybrid powertrain. Unfortunately plans to put even that version into production were shelved. But the concept was revived for the filming of the latest James Bond movie Spectre. Check out the C-X75 being put through its paces by the eleven-time grand prix winner in the video above. Related Video:

Cat Scratch Fever: Jaguar's turnaround looks toward the US

It is ironic that a British car company, steeped in the European sports-car tradition and now owned by an Indian industrial conglomerate, will ambitiously be seeking to attract customers in the United States with, of all things, a truck. But there it is: Jaguar's beefy F-Pace crossover, the first SUV in the company's 80-year history, hit the ground last month at the Frankfurt motor show. The F-Pace – along with the new XE sedan designed to take on the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 both in Europe and on these shores – is spearheading the brand's hoped-for turnaround on this side of the Pond. In the States, Jaguar is still a big player for Tata Motors of India, which bought Jaguar Land Rover from Ford for $2.3 billion after months of back-and-forth negotiations in 2008. It seemed like an incredibly brassy move at the time, when the economy worldwide was reeling and Britain's automotive industry was on its heels. And while the Jaguar brand name has a grand historical resonance, in the first nine months of 2015 it moved just over 11,000 cars in the US, down five percent for the same period the previous year. But if Porsche can capitalize on SUV sales, so can Jaguar. The tea leaves are promising come next spring, when both new premium luxury models arrive in the US. The F-Pace will have a starting price of about $43,000; the sedan range starts at a competitive $35,000. View 25 Photos Architecturally, both models are similar, with a modular aluminum chassis, and, for the F-Pace, a range of gasoline and diesel engines for Europe as well as rear- or all-wheel drive. For the American market, the model-year 2017 crossover will launch with a 380-horsepower gasoline V6 mated to an eight-speed transmission and all-wheel drive. Later in 2016, a 180-hp four-cylinder Ingenium diesel is expected to be added to the lineup. Both models are currently built in the UK, although if demand increases, Jaguar is likely to shift some production to Brazil, China, or Eastern Europe. I wanted a Jaguar that was designed as a crossover, not the other way round. For Jaguar design director Ian Callum, who showed up at the SUV's formal debut in Frankfurt, skepticism – did we mention that Jaguar was a sports-car company? – turned to enthusiasm as his team worked to develop some "drama" in the SUV's shape. "I wanted a Jaguar that was designed as a crossover, not the other way round," he said.

Jaguar-Land Rover builds millionth vehicle at Halewood

Jaguar-Land Rover is not what you'd call a volume automaker by any stretch of the imagination. But in the dozen years since it started manufacturing at its Halewood plant near Liverpool, England, the automaker has already built its millionth vehicle.
The landmark vehicle is a Range Rover Evoque, done up in white with red roof and mirrors, black wheels and a red and black interior. The crossover is set to be donated to Cancer Research UK, which will auction it off next year to help fund its projects in the north-west of the country.
Halewood started manufacturing the Jaguar X-Type in 2001, then went on to assemble the Land Rover LR2 / Freelander 2 before taking on production of the Evoque a year and a half ago. The facility reached the 300,000-unit milestone just last year as production moved to a 24-hour cycle for the first time in either marque's history.